We spoke with David Perecman, a New York personal injury lawyer who's representing the mother of 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo in a legal action against the city that lost her son on Oct. 4.

Oquendo, who can't speak, disappeared sometime after lunch at The Riverview School in Queens that day. When he left the building, a security guard reportedly asked him where he was going but didn't stop him. However, the school's worst offense wasn't losing him in the first place, Perecman told Business Insider. He says the school waited 45 minutes to call the police and another 15 to call the boy's parents.

"When administrators make a decision on a higher level not to call the police ... There's a lot of words for that," Perecman told BI. "... They could have found him within those 45 minutes."

Instead, Perceman said, teachers were "running around" the neighborhood looking for the boy. "Imagine how pissed off you would be if you were this child's mother," he said. "I am not his father, and I know how pissed I am."

Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott has said the boy's disappearance has spurred schools to evaluate emergency protocols, The New York Times reported.

Police have scoured the city for the boy, making announcements over the subway loudspeakers, checking buildings, and even looking in trash cans, according to The New York Times. Police commissioner Ray Kelly recently enraged the boy's family when he suggested the boy was dead, The Times reported.

“Unfortunately, we are not hopeful that we’re going to find this young man alive, but we are continuing our search," Kelly told WABC-TV on Oct. 24.

Avonte's brother, Danny, posted a heartbreaking message on the family's "Bring Avonte Home" Facebook page on Monday — a month to the day the boy disappeared.

"Each day that passes without Avonte being found is more devastating than the previous," he wrote. "I still feel your energy Avonte, I know you are out there somewhere."